A30189:335
An answer to two treatises of Mr. John Can, the leader of the English…An answer to two treatises of Mr. Iohn Can, the leader of the English…
An answer to two treatises of Mr. John Can, the leader of the English Brownists in Amsterdam the former called, A necessity of separation from the Church of England, proved by the Nonconformists principles : the other, A stay against straying : wherein in opposition to M. John Robinson, he undertakes to prove the unlawfulness of hearing the ministers of the Church of England ... / by the late learned, laborious and faithful servant of Jesus Christ, John Ball.An answer to two treatises of Mr. Iohn Can, the leader of the English Brownists in Amsterdam the former called, A necessitie of separation from the Church of England, proved by the Nonconformists principles : the other, A stay against straying : wherein in opposition to M. Iohn Robinson, he undertakes to prove the unlawfulnesse of hearing the ministers of the Church of England ... / by the late learned, laborious and faithfull servant of Jesus Christ, John Ball.
London: printed by R.B., 1642
Chapter 1 › Section 7 › CAN Stay. Sect. 5. pag. 66. › ANSWER.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
ANSWER.
Your great words are of small force, 1for should I speak my conscience, (it is your phrase,) They are words without weight of reason. For still you presuppose the Ministry of the Church of England to be false and idolatrous, which is to beg, not to conclude the question. But that being presupposed, let us see how you go forward. In preaching the truth of the Gospel by a false Minister, an Idolatrous act is performed, you say. But doth the Scripture say so? Do you read it in the Law, or in the Prophets, in the Apostles or in the Evangelists? The Scribes and Pharisees were false, Ministers, but it was not an Idolatrous work in them to expound the Law of Moses, or dispense other Church ordinances, at that time commanded. The popish Priests and Bishops are false Prophets, but the simple administration of Baptism by them is not an idolatrous act. The Minister that is profane, and hateth to be reformed, is a false Minister, and hath nothing to do to take the covenant of God into his mouth, but the Word preached by a treacherous Judas, proud Diotrephes, covetous Demas, or one that envieth the prosperity of Saints, and peace of Jerusalem, is not an Idolatrous act. If it be Idolatrous in him that performeth it, yet it doth not follow, that it is idolatrous in them that join in the ordinance. Let it be idolatrous in the priests, who despise knowledge, and live profanely, put case Eli's sons, to offer ⟨p. 108⟩sacrifice, it is idolatrous likewise for the people to appear before God in his holy Temple.
Your great words are of small force,